1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the field of garment hangers, and more particularly to an interchangeable garment hanger system for coordinated garment sets with a variable length attachment.
2. Description of Related Art
In the field of retail garment sales it is often desirable to display and sell a plurality of garments as a coordinated set and thus to hang them from a unitary hanger. This is particularly the case when the set of garments are sold using a so-called Garment-On-Hanger (GOH) program. GOH programs have become preferred to retailers. In a GOH program, garments are suspended from hangers by the manufacturer at the manufacturing site, and are shipped as such to retail merchants. Whereupon arrival at the retail location, the garments may be placed on the retail floor for display and sale without additional effort. Formerly, retailers accomplished the task of hanging garments from hangers with labor provided at their own expense.
Towards this end, certain special-purpose hangers have been developed to accommodate and display a coordinated set of garments. Among these are a double hanger, disclosed in United States Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0188475, published 30 Sep. 2004, by the present inventor and commonly assigned with the present application, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by its reference for all purposes. Another is a so-called bow hanger, particularly adapted for children and infants' clothing, illustrated in U.S. Design Pat. No. Des. 498,936, issued 30 Nov. 2004 to the present inventor and commonly assigned with the present application, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by its reference for all purposes. Yet another is a coordinate loop hanger, having a provision for supporting a second hanger from a loop provided beneath the body of the first, for example as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,875,932, issued 5 Apr. 2005 to Olk, et al., and commonly assigned with the present application, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by its reference for all purposes. Finally, a coordinate gripper or similar style hanger has a loop in substitution for a hook, the loop being adapted to depend from the base of the hook of another hanger. A coordinate gripper hanger is illustrated for example in U.S. Design Pat. No. Des. 502,011, issued 22 Feb. 2005 to the present inventor and commonly assigned with the present application, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by its reference for all purposes.
Each of these hangers suffers from a particular drawback. In the case of the double hanger and bow hanger, these are poorly suited for other purposes and/or wasteful and overly expensive if desired to be reused for a single garment top, for example. Additionally, their dimensions are fixed for the given application. The hanger is unsuitable to be reused for a different type or set of garments that would benefit from different dimensions or configurations. Instead, an entirely new hanger must be provided.
A gang or plurality of coordinate loop hangers is less than ideal because the even though the full size hook of the depending hanger allows the depending hanger to be used separately for other applications, the size and bulk of the hook is wasteful, and not necessary when used as a depending hanger.
The coordinate gripper hanger and those of a similar loop style can be less than ideal because they too are fixed in dimension, particularly in the length of the drop or the step between the hanger body and the upper loop. The length of drop is selected to accommodate one particular coordinate set or group of sets of clothing, and use with any others may be unsuitable. This style also suffers from the drawback that it does not secure the dependent hanger to the superior hanger. Instead it relies on gravity to hold the dependent hanger in place, and the dependent hanger may be easily jostled or even dislodged from the superior hanger.